Alameda: Planning Board to take up new emergency center

ALAMEDA -- The two-story building that will house a proposed Emergency Operations Center on Grand Street will feature a craftsman-inspired design and have enough space for up to 50 first responders to gather after a major earthquake, according to plans that will go before the Planning Board.

The 3,640-square-foot building also would house a disaster preparedness office and have a diesel generator so that it could stay open if power failed and if the neighborhood went black

The project at 1809 Grand St. also includes a new fire station, although the board will only be considering the emergency center's design Monday.

Construction of the emergency center, which is projected to cost about $2.8 million, could begin this spring, according to City Manager John Russo. The City Council voted in September last year to secure the money by extending and refinancing lease revenue bonds, or Certificates of Participation, that were originally issued in 2002 for seismic and other upgrades at City Hall.

The design of the center reflects the public comments gathered during a series of community meetings, Ciy Planner Andrew Thomas, said.

Its proposed exterior walls are plaster with a quarry stone tile base, Thomas said, and will feature deep-set windows accented by tile. The roof also will have concrete tiles and will peak at 30 feet in height.

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Thomas said the building's size and scale would mirror the Carnegie building across from City Hall on Santa Clara Avenue. The overall project site totals 25,245 square feet and will include an 11-space parking lot and two driveways.

Construction of the new fire station, which would face Buena Vista Avenue and total about 8,860 square feet, is expected to begin in 2015, Thomas said.

The City Council's decision to replace the current emergency center in the Alameda Police Department basement follows city voters rejecting a ballot measure in June last year that would have raised the local sales tax to pay for the project.

The half-cent increase under Measure C also would have helped pay for the new fire station, which will replace Station 3. Former state Senator Don Perata is now seeking to get the station funded through Sacramento as the city's lobbyist.

The current Station 3 on Grand Street has been closed for more than a decade because the building is not earthquake safe. Currently, firefighters assigned to the station, which mostly serves the center of the Island, work out of a neighboring former family home that the city rents.

In 2011, crews from the station responded to 1,067 emergency calls, according to a study prepared for the city by environmental planning services firm Michael Brandman Associates.

The proposed emergency center was designed by Brown Reynolds Watford, an architectural firm in San Francisco.